Barghest
Barghest is a featherweight robot entered into the [[King of Bots UK 2018|2018 King of Bots UK International Championships]] by team captain Christopher Lobley. It was successful in its qualification melees, and reached the Top 20, before withdrawing prior to the knockout rounds. Barghest was named after the Yorkshire legend of a demon dog. Design Barghest is one of the largest featherweights in King of Bots, with many gaps in its large frame to conserve weight. The robot uses a low-profile design, keeping its ground clearance as close to the floor as possible while also making the robot harder to hit. Barghest combines its two primary weapons to function as a 'control-bot', using a broad electrically powered lifting arm in conjunction with a vertical grabbing arm to hold opponents in the air, and take them to hazards such as the pit. The robot is quick on its two-wheel drive system, and its broad front end stops the robot from overbalancing while lifting. Barghest's default 'Uberclocker-style' setup of a low-profile wedge with electric lifter and grabber can be substituted for a grabber-only setup, allowing the robot to equip a thick HARDOX wedge, painted gold, designed to resist horizontal spinners. Its two wheels were exposed at the rear, although this also allows Barghest to reverse off wedges. Barghest pits.jpg|Barghest backstage, with lifter equipped Barghest 2018.jpg|Barghest with its anti-spinner wedge Anubis.jpg|Barghest's "Anubis" lifter head Barghest arena.jpg|Barghest in the arena Barghest watercut.jpg|Barghest's watercut parts, including its anti-spinner wedge Barghest painting.jpg|Barghest's parts being painted Barghest chassis.jpg|Barghest's chassis during construction Barghest's lifter can also be equipped with interchangeable 'ears', for different methods of self-righting. The lifter is themed after mythological dogs, with Anubis being the inspiration for Barghest's default lifter design. Barghest was built and designed by Adam Hamilton, who also competed in the 2018 UK International Championships with his own machine, Amnesia. Both robots were assembled at the Team Immersion workshop and shared the same construction methods and materials, using a HARDOX chassis, billeted HDPE sides and aluminium.Correspondence with Adam Hamilton, 16th December 2018. Robot History King of Bots UK 2018 In its first battle, Barghest fought Cobalt and the original version of Aegis. Barghest was wired incorrectly for the battle, causing the robot minor issues, although it was quickly able to overturn and immobilise Cobalt in a joint attack with Aegis. For the remainder of the battle, Barghest fought Aegis head-to-head, and succeeded in overturning it on occasion, while carrying the robot high off the floor. Towards the end of the battle, Barghest pushed Aegis into the pit, and won the melee by knockout, earning it four points. In its second battle, Barghest fought Forge Master and Vega. Ahead of the battle, Barghest was applied with new HARDOX armour on top, to protect it from the axe of Forge Master, and also used its broad wedge to resist the spinner of Vega, leaving Barghest without its lifting weapon. Barghest started the battle well, charging under Vega. In the process, the two robots became locked together, as Vega had hooked onto part of the wedge which had originally been designed to keep horizontal bar spinners away from the body of the machine. Barghest drove Vega into the pit, but due to technical issues with its drive ESC's, the robot could not reverse away from the pit, and eventually fell in. Forgemaster won the battle through little involvement of its own, although Barghest still earned two points for a second-place finish in the fight. In its final qualifying melee, Barghest fought two previously successful machines, Legion and Conker 3. Christopher Lobley had low expectations of Conker 3 heading into the fight, as it had been suffering with weapon issues throughout the event, after arriving late. Ultimately, Conker 3's weapon proved to be fully functional in the battle. Barghest primarily attacked Legion at the start of the battle, using its lower wedge to sneak under Legion and control its movement, avoiding attacks from its opponent. Barghest pushed Legion into the corner, and when turning around, Barghest pushed Legion into the egg beater spinner of Conker 3, which rocketed Legion out of the arena. Barghest was guaranteed to earn points from this battle due to Legion being eliminated, although Conker 3 had already damaged Barghest upon contact with its side, while Barghest was attacking Legion. Barghest was only able to move on one side, and was unable to show transitional movement in the subsequent head-to-head, and was counted out. Nevertheless, Barghest was awarded two points for another second-place finish. Barghest had comfortably qualified for the Top 20 knockout rounds, and after a late substitution, its opponent was to be Utopia, which in turn was suffering from its own problems due to long-standing battle damage. However, the damage that Conker 3 caused to Barghest had twisted its chassis, and this damage could not be repaired in time for its head-to-head fight. Ultimately, Team Cerastes withdrew from the competition, and were replaced with Calabash Bros. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 1 *Losses: 2 NOTE: Barghest's withdrawal from its knockout battle against Utopia is not considered to be a loss. Outside King of Bots File:Barghest.jpg|Barghest when it was first created File:Barghest_2.5_render.jpg|CAD render of Barghest 2.5 File:Barghest_December_2018.jpg|Barghest as of December 2018 Barghest was first built in 2017, with assistance from Adam Hamilton. It used a different colour-scheme, but was otherwise largely the same machine. It was relatively successful, most famously defeating Shard and Conker 3 in a single melee. Barghest found great success at the Robodojo Autumn Featherweight Championship, held in November 2018. In the Sportsman class, Barghest took an undefeated path to the final, defeating robots such as the original Aegis, and became the first robot to defeat the third version of Amnesia in the Grand Final. Returning for the March 2019 event, Barghest went undefeated across its four head-to-head fights, defeating The Tragic Roundabout, Chimera's Revenge, Crota and Boring Wedgebot #9, although it lost the four-way Sportsman final to Amnesia. Barghest also won its four head-to-head fights at the May 2019 event, defeating Dino, Barnsley Bruiser, Tantibus and Luna-tic, eventually finishing third place in the four-way final won by Amnesia. Barghest competed at the UK Featherweight Championship in August 2019, now boasting the ability to move its head as a separate grabbing weapon, while still keeping its existing setups. Barghest entered the competition at a disadvantage, having not been completed in time for its battle against Sinister, and it was also knocked out by X-303 despite a promising start. However, Barghest defeated Impact, Graffiti and Push-Abili-Tilly in sequence to finish third within its group. This put it into a three-way battle with Crabsolutely Clawful and Revolver to earn a place in the Top 16, with Barghest and Crabsolutely Clawful winning the melee. Within the Top 16, Barghest defeated Drumroll, but lost its quarter-final to Barróg Doom in a shock turnaround. Before competing with Barghest, Chris Lobley originally built a pushing robot named Cerastes, which the team continues to be named after. Trivia *When Barghest withdrew from the knockout rounds, it was replaced by the subsequent runner-up, Calabash Bros. References External Links *Team Cerastes Robot Combat Facebook page Category:King of Bots UK Competitors Category:Featherweights Category:Robots from the United Kingdom Category:Robots from Yorkshire Category:Robots from North Yorkshire Category:Robots with Lifters Category:Robots with Vertical Crushers Category:Top 20 finishers Category:Robots which withdrew from the competition Category:Robots with more losses than wins